If you are a Military family you have probably heard of OPSEC. It stands for Operations Security. It protects the operations of the Military from those that could do harm.

As a Military wife I need to remember OPSEC when it comes to talking about my husband’s deployments and trainings. I should not be posting information such as his deployment date, have a countdown to when he returns or the exact location of where he is at.

This is so important because it can put them in danger if the information gets out. You might not even think that someone could figure out exactly where the troops might be but if they are able to put together several different pieces of information from different sources, they might be able to.

We do not want the enemy to know where our troops are and when and where they are going.

Social media has made it harder for people to stick to OPSEC. People are excited about the end of the deployment so they post when their husband is going to be home on Facebook. This is not okay. Any date you get about the end of a deployment is private. I have heard of situations where too many people posted the when the soldiers were coming home, so they had to move it to a later date. That is very frustrating for everyone.

Even if all the spouses know the rules of OPSEC, sometimes other family members don’t and need a simple reminder.

I try to keep what I say general. Phrases such as, “He will be deploying the week after Christmas” or “My husband will be home in 7 days” are not okay. You also would never want to post about a mission while overseas. Any of this information could be dangerous if the wrong people had access to it. I never want information that could hurt my husband or the people he is with to fall into the wrong hands.

I have my own private countdowns but I never post them publicly. Even though dates can change, you can’t share your countdown. It is very tempting to do so. You want to share with the world when you get your husband or wife home. But you always have to remember OPSEC.

As a Military spouse blogger I will be blogging about deployment but I need to make sure I always remember OPSEC. One way to avoid it is to wait to post about it until after the fact. I can write about my feelings in the days before homecoming but I will not share them publicly until he is home and the deployment has ended.

If you have any doubts about what you can say, it is best to not say anything about the topic at all. You want to keep our Military members safe and remembering OPSEC is a must.